Joe Cool's Not Worried

Records are for squares.

CALVIN AND HOBBES’ ART FETCHES RECORD $203K:

Cartoonist-seller Brian Basset ‘blown away’ by jaw-dropping price for Bill Watterson original at auction

 

by Michael Cavna

A QUARTER-CENTURY ago, Brian Basset and Bill Watterson did what many cartooning peers do as an act of camaraderie: They swapped originals.

As with interview access to the “Calvin and Hobbes” creator himself, though, access to Watterson’s dazzling original artwork soon became an increasingly rare thing — both before and after he ended his legendary strip in 1995. So it made headlines recently when Basset — creator of the strips “Red and Rover” and “Adam@Home” — decided to put his prized 1986 Watterson original up for auction, citing that he was in a financial pinch.

Now, the record windfall from the Watterson gift should certainly help.

Over the weekend, the hand-colored Sunday original — a 13-by-9-inch marker-pen-and-watercolor on Bristol board — sold for a record-shattering $203,150, the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions told Comic Riffs on Saturday. (The hammer price before tacked-on premiums was $170,000, a Heritage official told us.)

“A world record price like this is a testament to just how beloved ‘Calvin & Hobbes’ was and is,” Todd Hignite, Heritage Auctions vice president, says in a news release, referring to the creators of “Peanuts,” “Little Nemo in Slumberland” and “Popeye.” “The final price realized tops any offering from any cartoonist ever, including the giants like Charles [Schulz], Winsor McCay and Elzie Segar.”

The previous reported record for the sale of a comic-strip original at auction was $113,500, in 2007, for a “Peanuts” original.

“I am absolutely thrilled and blown away with the final tally,” Basset tells Comic Riffs on Monday.

As is customary with many Heritage auctions, the house declined to identify the buyer out of respect to the buyer’s wishes. But Basset was able to convey the recipient’s reaction.
“
I did find out, though, from the auction house that the proud new owner — a cartoon collector — of the Watterson original is equally thrilled with their purchase.

“This makes me feel great,” continues Basset, who has noted he had economic needs with a divorce in the rear-view mirror and matrimony on his road ahead. “I was hoping it would go to someone who would enjoy it as much [as] I had for all the years I owned it.”
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Hey!! Kids Comics: From Trash to Treasure




X-Men #1 Pacific Coast pedigree (Marvel, 1963) CGC NM/MT 9.8 White pages - $492,937.50

 

Heritage Auctions shattered its own comic art auction records again this Thursday-Saturday. There were 2,633 lots in the mamoth three-day auction, and they sold for a grand total of $10.463,000. All but two of the lots sold, a near-100% sell through with an average price realized of $3,876.81 per lot.

When I started collecting comics in 1962 at the age of eight (we lived outside of the USA before that), comics cost 12 cents. I missed out on the 10-cent years. I started reading the Walt Disney character based titles from Gold Key, then began collecting superheroes with The Justice League of America (starting with issue #25, 2/64), Batman (coincidentally, the first "New Look" issue, with issue #164, 6/64), Green Lantern (issue #30, 7/64), and The Flash (issue #151, 3/65).

My Marvel comics collection began with Avengers issue #6 (7/64), Daredevil issue #6 (2/65), and X-Men issue #4 (3/64). the Marvels, with their offbeat brand of heroic monsters, flawed heroes, and charismatic villains, were different that the other companies' stories. Even stranger were the oddball Charlton comics, which had a wonky appeal for me.

I grew up collecting in Anchorage, Alaska, from 1962-74, in school grades 1-12. Back then in Anchorage, there was no organized fandom, no used book stores with old comics, and no comic stores -- the only comic retailers were the spinner racks at the grocery stores and drug stores.

You basically had a one-two week window to acquire the lastest issues, and they hit the racks every Thursday. I usually had to haunt three or four stores in order to make sure I found every issue I needed to keep my "runs" intact. I mainly shopped at the Rexall drugstores, F. W. Woolwoth's and Carr's grocery stores (a local Alaskan chain).

I was a well-heeled collector, because my dad paid me (and Alf) an unheard of weekly allowance of $5.00. All we had to do to "earn" it was take out the garbage, shovel snow from the driveway and walks in the winters, and water/mow the grass in the summers. With such an magnificent endowment I could buy virtually every current comic or magazine I wanted, and still have money left over for candy and movies.

My brother collected stamps and built model kits, and he used to chide me about "wasting" my money on comics, which were mostly seen as disposable entertainment back then. You were supposed to read them and threw them away. Only a few kids saved them. "Yeah," I'd reply in justification, "but you can't read a stamp." I was way, way, way into the art and stories. Today as we can see, the comics from that era are quite valuable, while my brother's stamps, sadly, are virtually worthless. Only a few (ahem) visionaries saw it turning out this way.

As the weeks and months went by comic collection grew and grew. At first, I stored my prized Avengers issues in a large wooden cirgar box, then with the rest of the comics in the bottom shelf of my chest of drawers, and finally as a lopsided stacks in the closet. There were no comic bags, backing boards, or special boxes back then.

In later years, I stored them in large banker's document boxes or better yet, in a metal file cabinet. Back then those who read comics were regarded as dolts by the public at large, because "funnybooks" relied heavily on the visuals rather than text. Once again the comics defied popular perception. The comic fans would go on to become the scientific and financial nerds, geeks, and downright brainy folks of our time, much as the science fiction and pulp magazine fans had done in earlier years. In these early years comics were often lumped in as a lower order of s-f fandom, as the somewhat abused "red-headed stepchild."

One summer in the early sixties, mom finally laid down the law and commanded me to give my comic stash away, except for 100 issues. Naturally, I was torn about which ones to keep, and was haunted by loss. I felt I had made many ill-advised decisions, and so, her scheme backfired, inciting an even more unrelenting obsession to reacquire the "lost issues," and more. When comic books started to climb in value throughout the seventies (thanks in part to an offical price guide), I would constantly remind mom that I had owned many of those valuable treasures ($2-$35 each). She had long ago relented on the quota and let me amass a huge collection. Dad hated the "clutter", and would often make a snide comment or two. Still, I was allowed to keep them all.

Collecting comics was very uncool in those years, and as boys aged, they often "outgrew" their comics. Once alerted, I could swoop in and buy their entire cache for $10-$20. I'd rush home with paper grocery bags filled to the top, overjoyed, and would fill in missing issues in my runs thanks to thes "super-scores."

I didn't attend my first comic convention until I was 18, when mom and I traveled to New York City just so I could attend the 1974 Comic Art Convention put on by Phil Seuling. I had a blast, and bought a marred copy of Daredevil #1 at the show for $6.

The most I've ever paid for any single comic book issue was $75.00 (I actually paid that much for three different issues -- an Incredible Hulk #1, a Tales of Suspense #39, and a Fantastic Four #2 from the personal collection of Jack Kirby). My "magic number" for pulling the trigger on a purcahse was $6, though I would sometimes pay as much as $20-$50 for certain prized issues (like Batman #4, #5, and #10).

Original comic book art was scarce in the market place in these early years. I moved to Dallas in 1974 to attend SMU, but even in the much bigger fan mecca of Dallas, I seldom saw art for sale. My first art purchase was consumated at my first San Diego Comic Con in 1991. I bought a complete six-page Alex Toth Standard Comics romance yarn for $500. Toth was my favorite artist back then. After I bought that art I was hooked. To use a metaphor, if comics were as enjoyable and addictive as cocaine, then original art was a crack-cocaine'like rush (only not as cheap).

I started collecting comic art via phone calls to other collectors, Buyer's Guide ads, and San Diego conventions. In the early days of eBay, I started selling some of my art and comics to get the cash for new acquisitions, and being local lad, I landed my job as an art/expert cataloger at Heritage Auctions. Jim Halperin liked the writing of my eBay ads and contacted me personally via email.

As much as I have always loved and treasured comics, the prices now being realized for many of these lots blow me away. A copy of the X-Men #1 comic book from 1963 (said to be in the best condition known) sold for $492,000 and change. Todd McFarlane's 1990 original cover art for The Amazing Spider-Man #328 sold for $657,250. That was the year I started collecting art. These are relatively recent collectibles, not even hailing from the truly scarce Golden Age era. It seems that the world has been turned on its ear, and all those years and quarters I "wasted" honing my expertise in comic art have paid off big time.

An old school "spinner rack."

Team Cul de Sac Auction: Bravery

Team Cul de Sac is a charity auction to raise funds for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkison's Disease research in support of cartoonist Richard Thompson. I've been writing descriptions for the auction lots at my job with Heritage Auctions. Since my own father, Marvin D. Mangus, died from PD, I decided to join in the fun with this strip about my dad, titled Bravery. The two characters flanking me in the final panel are Annie and Petey Otterloop from Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac comic strip.

John Severin (1921-2012): 80 Years of Excellence

By Don Mangus, Heritage Auctions Comic Art Specialist, HA.com newletter 2012

John Severin was not only one of comicdom's top talents, he also was one of its most prodigious.

Years ago, comics historian Robin Snyder captured my full comics-obsessed attention when he posed this riveting question in his indispensable newsletter, The Comics, "Who has written the most scripts in the history of the comics?" Robin took up a monumental task, and didn't just guess or speculate, but actually counted the stories, and narrowed the champion to a handful of candidates: Paul S. Newman, Robert Kanigher, Carl Wessler, Otto Binder, and a few others. Eventually, Newman took the lead, but many years later, Robin is still counting "hanging chads." Inspired by his outrageous feat, I wondered, "Who drew the most comic pages?" Fan-favorite Jack "King" Kirby set a blistering pace. Devoted indexers meticulously compiled his stats. Kirby's career total was 20,318 pages of art, including 1,158 pages in 1962 alone. (The complete statistics can be found in The Art of Jack Kirby by Ray Wyman Jr., Blue Rose Press, 1994). The King logged a hefty career span of 58 glorious years.

Several cartoonists have since had the benefit of a few extra decades of work to catch or pass the King. Challengers to the throne include Dick Ayers, Steve Ditko, Tom Gill, Sam Glanzman, Russ Heath, Gil Kane, Warren Kremer, Joe Kubert, George Tuska, and my personal favorite, John Severin. "Big John" matches, or perhaps even tops, the unbelievably early start of comics prodigy Kubert. Tyro John Severin saw print in The Hobo News at the age of 10. Severin continued working until his passing, for a near-inconceivable career span of 80 years. In order to get solid Robin Snyder-like stats for John Severin, someone is first going to have to index nearly 45 years of Cracked magazine. Good luck. Since Severin typically did two features, as well as most of the covers, his page tally from Cracked alone is sure to be staggering.

John Severin's output is remarkable not just for its amazing quantity, but also its high quality and consistency. A childhood friend of Harvey Kurtzman, Severin sent the future MAD creator and others a steady stream of brilliantly illustrated letters that were inspired by the example of Western artist Charles M. Russell. When Severin's comics work debuted in the late forties, it appeared in full flower, and never really changed all that much — there was just no need.

In his early comic book career, Severin teamed with fellow High School of Music & Art alum Will Elder, with Severin penciling and Elder inking. It was a crackerjack team, and the two soon teamed with Kurtzman who had landed at EC. Unfortunately, after working on nine issues of MAD and many war, adventure, and Western yarns for EC, creative tensions erupted between Severin and the editorially autocratic Kurtzman. They tore a painful rift in the friendship, and Severin opted out of the collaboration for more creative freedom elsewhere.

In the many years since his legendary EC term, Severin worked steadily at Timely/Atlas/Marvel, DC, Charlton, Gilberton, Warren Publishing, Atlas/Seaboard, and Cracked magazine, as well as many other publishers. At Atlas, Severin was counted as one of "the Big Three," along with Bill Everett and Joe Maneely, and in friendly competition with Russ Heath, the four men turned out show-stopping war, Western, and horror work, always trying to top each other.

At MAD and later, Cracked, Severin showcased his endlessly entertaining talent for caricature and humor. His work stands alongside the best the field has to offer. Like all true masters of the art of cartooning, Severin was able to adjust his basic cartooning approach ever so slightly for the demands of the humor genre, while the style still remained uniquely his own.

John Severin received late notoriety in the twilight of his career when he illustrated 2003's controversial limited series, The Rawhide Kid. As quoted on wikipedia, Severin wryly quipped, "The Rawhide Kid is rather effeminate in this story. It may be quite a blow to some of the old fans of Rawhide Kid, but it's a lot of fun, and he's still a tough hombre."

Mr. Severin is survived by his loving family — sister Marie, his wife of 60 years, Michelina, six children, thirteen grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and a step-great-granddaughter. Our warmest sentiments go out to his family and friends.

In the final analysis, despite the obsession I have displayed in obtaining a page count tally, there is really only one bottom line that counts — that John Severin's many fans will continue to enjoy his brilliant legacy, preserved in the many pages of the comics we love so much.

Some Favorites:

Comics:

Blazing Combat: #1-4

Cracked: A vast body of regular issue and special issues from a 45-year run

Creepy: #7, 10, 11, 14, 17, 62, 68, 73, 75-77. 78 (inks Wally Wood), 79, 81, 83, 84 and 86 (inks Carmine Infantino), 87, 89, 91(reprints 78), 92, 93 (inks Infantino), 100, 105, and 112

Eerie: #2, 6, and 8

Frontline Combat: # 1 (Kurtzman inks); 2-6, 8-11 (Elder inks); 7, 12, and 15 (solo)

Incredible Hulk: #109, 110, 131, 132, and 141-155 (mostly inking Herb Trimpe)

Kull the Conqueror: #2-9 (inking his talented sister, Marie Severin)

Mad: #1-7, 9, and 10

Our Fighting Forces: # 131 (inks Ross Andru); 132-150 (The Losers stories with writer Robert Kanigher)

Sgt. Fury: #44-46; 50-79 (inking himself, Dick Ayers, and others)

Strange Tales: #136-138 (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L. D., over Jack Kirby breakdowns)

Two-Fisted Tales: #19-27, 29, 31, 36 (with Elder), 28, 33, 36-41 (co-edits with Kurtzman #36-41)

Unknown Soldier: #251-253; and 260-261 (Enemy Ace stories with writer Robert Kanigher)

Fanzines:

Graphic Story Magazine #13 (Spring, 1971): Interview

Comics Journal #215 and 216 (August and October 1999): Interview

Squa Tront #11 (Spring 2005): Special John Severin Issue

Jack Adler (1918-2011): Father of the Grey Tone Cover

  

by Don Mangus, Heritage Auctions, HA.com newletter, 2011

After a lengthy illness, DC production legend Jack Adler has passed away.

Adler began his outstanding career working on the color separations for the Prince Valiant feature as well as other syndicated Sunday comic strips. In 1947 he took on production and coloring assignments exclusively for the National/DC line.

In the Fifties, Adler became the "father" of the celebrated greytone cover process for DC. The process was called "washtone" by Adler, who created a separate wash on three or more overlays for each color to be printed over the "base" grey tone art. When the comics were printed with the four-color presses, Adler's washes were thus printed over the artist's base painting or drawing, giving the covers their distinct three-dimensional quality, different from, say a Gold Key or Dell painted cover.

Adler also invented a special photographic process for removing the printed color benday dots of a printed comic book story, leaving only the black line art for clean reprints. Unfortunately, the process was deemed too expensive by DC's publishers.

Adler's career was outlined in the Amazing World of DC Comics #10, and he was interviewed by Jim Amash in Alter Ego #56. After some industry controversy, Jack Adler retired from DC in 1981. Our best wishes go out to his family, friends, and fans. Meanwhile his legacy is on view, in the pages of the comics.

Jeffrey Jones (1944-2011): Fantasy Master

  

by Don Mangus, Heritage Auctions, HA.com newsletter, 2011

With the passing of Jeffrey Jones, fantasy art has lost one of its stellar talents. On at least one occasion the great Frank Frazetta himself was said to have proclaimed Jones "the greatest living painter." As IDW Publishing, producers of the lavish monograph, Jeffrey Jones: A Life in Art, put it, "Over the past 40 years, there have been few artists who have received as much acclaim and garnered as much attention as Jeffrey Jones."

Like so many young fantasy artists, Jones began his career as an enthusiastic fanzine contributor. In the late sixties and early seventies, he sporadically appeared in mainstream comics, along the way creating an early yarn that debuted in Charlton's Flash Gordon #13, a handful of moody Gothic romance covers for DC, a brood of blood-chilling horror blockbusters for Warren, Skywald, and Major Magazines, and a delightful smattering of Underground and Ground-level comix.

By the mid-sixties, Jones had established himself as a prolific, much-in-demand paperback cover artist, and he often painted in a bravura style that was inspired by such giants of "the Golden Age of Illustration" as Howard Pyle, Harvey Dunn, Dean Cornwell, J. C. Leyendecker, and N. C. Wyeth.

Among Jones' regular comic features was the whimsical and poetic "Idyl" for National Lampoon and "I'm Age" for Heavy Metal.

From 1975-79 Jones shared a work space in Manhattan's Chelsea district with fellow artists Bernie Wrightson, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Michael W. Kaluta. The group was collectively dubbed "The Studio" by fandom, and in 1979, Dragon's Dream produced a celebrated volume of their work by that name.

Underwood Books, publishers of the splendid, in-depth 2002 monograph, The Art of Jeffrey Jones, aptly noted, "Comfortable as both a book cover illustrator and as a comic artist, Jeffrey Jones gained a large and loyal following that resulted in the artist being honored with a World Fantasy Award for Best Artist. Though he left the commercial field in the late eighties to devote full attention to fine art, Jones continued to explore the worlds of science fiction and fantasy — sometimes heroic, sometimes erotic, occasionally hilarious, and always breathtakingly beautiful."

Jeffrey Jones' glorious legacy of fine artworks assures that this artist will long be remembered as one of the greatest talents of our generation. We offer our heartfelt condolences and best wishes to the family, friends, and fans of this unique, evocative, and ethereal artist.

Taps for Jerry Grandenetti (1927-2010): Greytone Cover Innovator

  

By Don Mangus, HA.com comicsnewsletter, 2010

Farewell to Jerry Grandenetti, one of the finest of the "Big 5" DC war comic cover artists. For the record, he was my personal favorite.

Grandenetti studied art at the School of Visual Art and Pratt Institute and his main field of study was architectural drawing. Upon making the rounds of the comic houses in 1946, "Busy" Arnold at Quality Comics steered him to Will Eisner's studio where he assisted on the Spirit. At first Eisner would rough in the composition and Grandenetti would create the environment and backgrounds, but eventually he did more of the drawing. While in the Eisner shop he drew The Secret Files of Dr. Drew in a dead-on Eisner-based style for Ranger Comics. In the 1950s, he drew "Crimebuster" for Lev Gleason's Boy Comics and war and western stories for National/DC.

Before the arrival of Joe Kubert, Grandenetti could be said to have been the main war artist for editor Robert Kanigher. This period of Grandenetti's produced some of my favorite art. He excelled at creating dramatic scenes from unusual angles and skewed perspectives while still maintaining a realistic style. While working at National/DC he also pioneered the legendary greytone covers.

Perhaps my favorite of these greytone covers was Our Fighting Forces # 71, spotlighting Gunner, Sarge, and Pooch hidden in the jungle, in a tense close up, complete with sweat rolling down their faces.

Probably the first DC greytone cover was Grandenetti's All American Men of War # 35 (7/56). The art was executed as an ink wash drawing and then in the production process, a halftoned photostat of the art was made , the logo added, and finally, the color was laid in over this statted wash drawing during the four-color printing process. Thus the resulting effect has almost a three-dimensional quality.

In the Amazing World of DC Comics #10 (1/76), Jack Adler, DC's ace production man, confirmed, "It was suggested that we start doing washes for covers, and we were talking about doing it for so damned long, but nobody attempted it. I think Grandenetti did the first one, an army cover with someone floating in the water. I think that was the first wash cover that was done. That one ended up looking like a full color painting."

In the October 1995 issue of Robin Snyder's The Comics, DC war comic editor/writer Robert Kanigher wrote, "... and it was in this atmosphere that I created the rugged Tank Killer, illustrated by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, and the change-of- pace Gunner and Sarge which they also drew. I chose Jerry Grandenetti to follow them. He managed to get the grime and the humor of the two Marines (and, eventually their wonderful Pooch) fighting in the jungle as no one else could. Jerry liked to experiment and I had to sit on him to get him to stop it. Especially in his covers, which were outstanding, when I forced him to draw as realistically as possible."

In the sixties Grandenetti's art did get a little "looser" and less realistic, some might even say surreal, perhaps due to fatigue from the continuing grind on Gunner and Sarge. When he began working for Warren Publishing, Grandenetti's interest seemed to be rekindled and his work returned to a much more expressionistic and experimental phase, building on what he had begun at Eisner's studio, or perhaps it was due to the freedom from Kanigher's realism edict. Maybe it was the subject matter or the fluid nature of the wash medium, but whatever the case, he produced brilliant work at Warren in the late 1960s and early1970s.

For Warren, Grandenetti produced, among others, these memorable stories, all in dark wash tones: "In Close Pursuit" (with sound effects and a mood very reminiscent of Eisner), "The Art of Horror", the Washington Irving adaptation "The Adventure of The German Student," "Type Cast," "House of Fiends," the Poe adaptation "Bernice," "The Carrier of the Serpent," and "On the Wings of a Bird." Grandenettti was profiled in Creepy # 42 and rendered a self portrait for Vampirella # 16.

Jerry Grandenetti ultimately phased out of comics and made his living in advertising art at the agency of Young and Rubicam, but by then he had established himself as a major comic art innovator and a master at the use of wash tones. He was especially suited for stories in the war, mystery, and horror genres.

Jerry Grandenetti leaves a legacy of brilliant, innovative work, and "Big 5" and greytone cover fans everywhere salute him and mourn his passing.

-Don Mangus

Jerry Grandenetti Greytone Cover Checklist:

All American Men of War #35 (7/56)

G. I. Combat #44 (1/57)

G. I. Combat #51 (8/57)

G. I. Combat #69 (2/59)

G. I. Combat #75 (8/59)

G. I. Combat #76 (9/59)

G. I. Combat #77 (10/59)

G. I. Combat #79 (12/59)

G. I. Combat #81 (4/60)

G. I. Combat #82 (6/60)

G. I. Combat #83 (8/60)

G. I. Combat #89 (8/61)

G. I. Combat #90 (11/61)

G. I. Combat #92 (2 /62)

G. I. Combat #100 (6/63)

G. I. Combat #101 (8/63)

G. I. Combat #102 (10/63)

Our Army at War #57 (4/57)

Our Army at War #60 (6/57)

Our Fighting Forces #20 (4/57)

Our Fighting Forces #71 (10/62)

Showcase #3 ("The Frogmen) (8/56)

Star Spangled War Stories #45 (5/56)

Four Star Battle Tales #4 (9-10/73, reprint of OAAW # 57)

Simon and Kirby Mystery Solved: Who is Dave Wigransky?

  

by Don Mangus, HA Comic Art and Illustration Art Expert

May 6, 2010

The adjective iconic fits Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's original Headline Comics #25 cover art as snugly as a hit-man's glove. Heritage Comic and Comic Art Signature Sale 7021 offers this startling "pre-Code" crime classic with its own fascinating back story, tied to a Golden Age genre-killing controversy.

Describing this macabre masterwork, I was struck by its bold inscription, "To Dave Wigransky — best wishes and good luck — Joe Simon and Jack Kirby."

David Wigransky — the name was hauntingly familiar. Then, I recalled where I had read it. Cartoonist and comics historian Michael T. Gilbert had written an extensive piece on Mr. Wigransky for his Mr. Monster's Comic Crypt article, Cain Before Comics, in Alter Ego #90 (December 2009).

As Mr. Gilbert put it, "During the Golden Age, many parents believed that comic books were a corrosive influence on their children. Critical articles by Dr. Fredric Wertham and other 'experts' blamed them for every ill from juvenile delinquency to pimples. But comic fans still had their defenders, even then. David Wigransky, a teenage comic book fan who, outraged by Wertham's claims, stood up and fought back. Young David wrote a powerful letter in the July 24, 1948 issue of The Saturday Review of Literature defending his favorite reading material."

Titled Cain Before Abel, the vintage TSROL article reproduced in the Alter Ego feature began, "Editor's Note: Of the numerous replies we received to Dr. Fredric Wertham's article 'The Comics — Very Funny' and John Mason Brown's 'The Case Against Comics,' one of the most interesting is that written by fourteen-year-old David Pace Wigransky of Washington, D. C. Young Mr. Wigransky, who has just completed the tenth grade at the Calvin Coolidge Senior High School, is a devoted reader and collector of comic books. He tells us that he now owns 5,212 such books and 'intends to make drawing them his profession and life's work.'"

(For an in-depth look at Mr. Wigransky's letter, kindly seek out Mr. Gilbert's article in Alter Ego #90).

The blood-chilling Simon & Kirby cover offered in our auction would have been cited by crime comic critics as a "smoking gun," exhibit I (for ironic) for those self-appointed "prosecutors" in the mounting controversy. It would be offered as "iron-clad proof" of the outlaw influence of the "true crime" comics -- the genre that Dr. Wertham M. D. would condemn in his alarmist 1953 screed, Seduction of the Innocent, the Influence of Comic Books on Today's Youth.

In 1954, the U. S. Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency launched its grandstanding probe into the allegedly unhealthy influence of the comic book industry was having on America's youth. David Wigransky's TSROL letter was read again in an ill-fated "defense" of the industry. The insights of this teenaged fan were recorded in the official transcript. Ultimately, it was for naught - a majority of the comic publishers in effect pleaded nolo contendere and soon formed their self-censorship program, the Comics Code Authority. After that, wide-open crime comics were rendered DOA.

This uncensored Simon & Kirby "pre-Code" thriller is emblematic of the waning moments before the coming storm of this turbulent era. As a superlative work of art, with connections to both the "defense" and the "prosecution" of pre-Code comics, and with ties to two of comics' most famous creators, their critics, and a key, outspoken fan, this cover has a cultural cachet that certifies it as iconic.

In the closing of his Alter Ego article, Michael T. Gilbert followed up on what became of the aspiring comics artist and outspoken fan, David Pace Wigransky. While he never became a professional comic book artist, Mr. Wigransky did find his way into print again after a fashion. He wrote a book, Jolsonography, devoted to entertainer Al Jolson in 1969. Sadly, it was reported Wigransky died the same year, while still in his early thirties.

Pre-Code crime comics, DOA — a case of suicide or murder? You make the call.

Frank Frazetta (1928-2010): "Worldbeater."

Originally written by Don Mangus for the HA.com blog
May 11, 2010

(It is both a pleasure and a sad duty today to give the reins of the blog to Don Mangus, one of our comics and illustration art experts, and a fine gentleman who has graced these digital pages before. A pleasure because, well, Don is that good a writer, and a sad duty because of the task he has been asked to undertake: Eulogizing Frank Frazetta, who passed away yesterday at the age of 82. He was indeed the greatest living sci-fi and fantasy artist and one of the world's great talents, period. The forces of good are mourning the passing of a great talent. He is pictured there, to the right, scarce three weeks ago, holding The Frank Collection Catalog, of which his Warrior With Ball And Chain was the centerpiece. Surely we will never look on his like again. - Noah Fleisher)

Sadly, the passing of Frank Frazetta marks the end of a modern fantasy era.

Frazetta's iconic cover images for Lancer's paperback reissues of Robert E. Howard's immortal Conan series marked a sea-change for fantasy art. The athletic and movie-idol-handsome artist's work has inspired and influenced every fantasy artist since the 1960s, and spawned scores of bald-faced "art pirates," often dubbed "Faux-zettas" by fandom's sardonic wits.

Without doubt, Frazetta was a one-of-a-kind artistic prodigy. Though justly celebrated for his barbaric fantasy paintings, he was a master of every cartoon and illustration genre -- action-adventure, caricature, costumed hero, crime, funny animal, jungle, romance, horror, humor, satire, science fiction, Western, and everything in between.

To measure the scope of Frazetta's legacy, it's worth taking note of both the fickle nature and short memories of the publishing industry and the reading public. All too often "today's super-star" becomes tomorrow's forgotten creator. For most, "Glory days – well, they'll pass you by..."It's sobering to ponder how close to this fate even the supremely talented Frazetta came.

In 1954, after creating a superb (and highly collectible) body of early comic book work for Standard, Eastern Color, DC, ME, Toby, ACG, and EC, Frazetta found himself in need of a steady paycheck, and began anonymously assisting Al Capp on the syndicated Li'l Abner comic strip. In 1961, after being refused a raise, Frazetta quit the Abner job, put together his latest and greatest portfolio, and hit the streets looking high and low for work from the few comic book companies that had survived the huge implosion following the industry-stifling 1954 U. S. Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency.
Despite a no-doubt superlative portfolio, the now-forgotten Frazetta came away with only a few comic book jobs, thanks almost entirely to the good graces of his old EC stable mate and friend, George Evans.

To the discerning eye, the Frazetta touch can be found submerged in the panels of Dell Comics' The Frogmen #1-3 (1962). These last-gasp comic book jobs helped keep Frazetta going during a turbulent transitional period.

The breakthrough in Frazetta's fortunes came thanks to another caring friend, fantasy legend Roy G. Krenkel, who had scored a series of Edgar Rice Burroughs illustration assignments from Ace Books, and was largely carrying on a tradition pioneered by J. Allen St. John.

At first, Frazetta helped the perpetually procrastinating Krenkel fulfill a few of these assignments. Then because of the wildly enthusiastic Krenkel's urging, he struck out on his own. Not content to merely knock at the door of opportunity, Frazetta savagely kicked it off its hinges with his visceral Conan covers. A bunch of enchanting fantasy paperback cover assignments followed, as well as spine-tingling horror magazine covers for Warren Publishing, and other strikingly successful commercial art assignments -- all of which ended up crowning Frazetta the "king of living fantasy artists."

Always mindful of getting his originals back from the publishers, Frank and his wife Ellie purposefully built the Frazetta legacy. Starting in the mid-60s, the Frazetta legend grew and grew among creative art directors, fans, and collectors alike, thanks to a wealth of posters, fanzines, portfolios, calendars, record album covers and books.

Among the important career milestones were a series of five Frank Frazetta books from Bantam Books, the triumphant appearance of the Death Dealer on the cover of the May 1976 issue of American Artist, Ralph Bakshi's 1983 animated Fire and Ice movie, based on Frazetta's paintings and co-directed by Frazetta himself, the 2003 feature documentary Frank Frazetta: Painting with Fire, and perhaps most importantly – the opening of the Frank Frazetta Museum in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania in 2001.

As Jim Halperin, Co-Chairman of Heritage Auction Galleries, aptly notes, "Frazetta was, quite simply, the greatest comic book artist of the 20th Century. Amazingly, he was also a modest soul, and a true gentleman in every way. He will be missed, but never forgotten."

Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post Cover Study

Richly Detailed Drawing Hails from Rockwell's Key World War II Years.

In 1944, the World was very much at war, and Norman Rockwell created poignant views of how the war was affecting both the American "Citizen Soldier," and life on the home front.

For The Saturday Evening Post, Rockwell created his own "G. I. Joe," a young soldier named Willie Gillis, a figure who expressed a determined, yet good-natured attitude to his military duty.

"There's no doubt that this fantastic cover study for 'Little Girl Observing Lovers on a Train' hails from a key period in Rockwell's career," said Don Mangus, Heritage Senior Illustration Art Expert. "Always a consummate perfectionist, Rockwell rendered this detailed drawing before painting the final cover scene for the August 12, 1944 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. The intricate composition and precisionist rendering of this masterwork is magnificent."

Rockwell's typical working method was to pose live models and draw them, often over a period of several days.

"Rockwell avoided using professional models, and instead would seek out everyday people to stage scenes of pure Americana," Mangus said. "An inscription on this drawing indicates that the part of the sleeping soldier in this tender tableau may have been modeled by Private William Schmidt. As a result, our consignor wrote Rockwell in 1971 to find out more about the soldier. Unfortunately, too much time had passed and Rockwell could not recall many details about Private Schmidt. This signed letter adds a nice touch to the provenance of this piece." The work is fully documented in Norman Rockwell A Definitive Catalogue by Laurie Moffatt.

Any work by Norman Rockwell is highly sought after, and this museum-quality drawing is sure to garner much collector interest. Cover studies of similar quality have sold in the range of $125,000 - $250,000. This drawing is estimated at $120,000 - $180,000, and is being sold without reserve.

"Those interested in this sensational cover study, and all the other classic Illustration Art in our upcoming auction, should visit our website, HA.com," Mangus said, "where they can see enlargeable, full-color images of each lot, read our complete and informative catalog descriptions, and even place their bids online from the comfort and convenience of their home or office."

Gene Colan (1926-2011)

 

by Don Mangus, Heritage Auctions

With his recent passing, comics legend Gene Colan has left a sterling career highlighted by his superb comic art. During his 60+ year run he worked for Fiction House, Timely/Atlas, EC, DC, Marvel, Warren, Archie, and many other publishers.

Colan had a robust illustrational style, but he wasn't bound by it; he was able to adapt to every comic book genre -- war, Western, superhero, action-adventure, crime, humor, horror, or whatever else was needed. He had a rich pencil line that was nuanced and evocative, and often used subtle modulations of intermediate grey tones that posed a challenge for inkers to interpret. For some, Colan was his own best inker and although he seldom inked his own work, top-notch examples can be found among his early war stories for Atlas, and his later wash tone horror and war tales for Warren Publishing. On several occasions, comics were produced directly from his pure, unadorned pencils.

In the mid-sixties, following John Romita's lead, Gene Colan left the romance comics of DC for the super-heroics of Marvel, where as "Gene the Dean" Colan or "Genial" Gene Colan he built a loyal following. After making a splash on the Sub-Mariner feature at the House of Ideas, he soon established himself as a key creator on the Iron Man and Daredevil franchises. He also enjoyed celebrated stints on Doctor Strange and Captain America.

Colan drew all 70 issues of Tomb of Dracula.

A natural visual storyteller, Colan thrived using Stan Lee's "Marvel method," with its bare-bones art direction and scripting. He plotted and laid out his stories freely in a fast-moving "cinematic" manner with varied panel shapes and points-of-view. In contrast to so many illustrational cartoonists of his era, Colan had managed to learn from the Noel Sickles/Milton Caniff school of storytelling without actually appropriating their art styles.

In the seventies Colan chalked up long, fan-favorite runs on the startlingly offbeat Marvel series, Tomb of Dracula and Howard the Duck.

In the eighties, after an unhappy dispute over changing editorial dictates, Colan left the "Batty Marvel Bullpen" to return to DC, lending his distinctive touch to such icons as Batman and Wonder Woman, as well as on the new series Night Force and Jemm, Son of Saturn.

Like so many comic artists of his generation, Colan was extremely talented, hard working, and dependable. As a reader, it was a luxury to be able to count on his fine work with its consistent drama and verve, month-after-month, like clockwork. We mourn the loss of this towering talent, and offer Gene Colan's family and friends our best wishes; meanwhile, his many fans will continue to enjoy his legacy in the pages of the comics.

A Tribute to Ernie Schroeder

by Don Mangus

Heritage Auctions Comic Art and Illustration Specialist

A sterling talent has passed on - sadly, another link to the Golden Age has slipped away.

Ernest "Ernie" Schroeder received his early art instruction at the Art Students League, studying under noted art-world figures George Bridgman and George Grosz.

In the mid-forties, Mr. Schroeder began his comics career working for another Golden Age great, Bob Powell. Mr. Schroeder turned out exhilarating tales for such Harvey Comics super-folk as Captain Freedom and the Spirit of '76. Revisit any of the Ernie Schroeder originals found in the Heritage Auction Archives and you are sure to be swept away by the free-wheeling spirit and high-energy action that infused his storytelling.

During his World War II military service, Mr. Schroeder continued cartooning and drew gag cartoons for his Fort Blanding, Florida camp newspaper, The Bayonet.

Perhaps Mr. Schroeder's most fondly remembered comics work was done in collaboration with Ed Cronin on the Airboy and The Heap features for Hillman Periodicals. These yarns were unsigned and years after their publication, indefatigable comic-art sleuth Hames Ware was able to identify Mr. Schroeder's hitherto anonymous art using a few scant clues garnered from credited pulp magazine illustrations. At last, the long sought-after identity of the anonymous "good artist" on The Heap became known to fandom at large - Ernie Schroeder.

Meanwhile, Mr. Schroeder had retired from comics. In the late fifties he operated his own marina. In the sixties, Mr. Schroeder produced commercial art for Boeing. In the seventies, he was active in creating specialized designs for the Franklin Mint. A skilled artist and hard-working craftsman, Mr. Schroeder was accomplished in sundry art-related fields. He personally built forty boats, a public fountain, and even a full-sized saber-toothed tiger display for a natural history museum.

For those who wish to read much more about this modest man with a most remarkable talent, comics historian Jim Amash published a heart-warming interview with Mr. Schroeder in Roy Thomas' Alter Ego #42 (November, 2004). It's a rewarding read.

We extend our sincere best wishes to Mr. Schroeder's family and friends. We comic book fans will long treasure the joyous legacy of excellence he left us.

Hardin "Jack" Burnley (1911-2006)

By Don Mangus

Starman artist Jack Burnley has passed away at age 95.

After establishing his artistic credentials during a ten-year stint as a top-notch sports cartoonist at King Features, Jack Burnley was hired by DC editor Whitney Ellsworth in late 1939. Burnley drew many memorable covers for DC's Golden Age titles. Among the first and most notable was for New York World's Fair Comics 1940, with Superman, Batman, and Robin sharing a cover for the very first time.

Burnley brought a sleek, dynamic, and polished look to his earliest assignments as a "ghost" on the Superman and Batman characters in both the comic books and the newspaper strips. Burnley's figure draftsmanship ranks among the very best in the field. He brought a clean-cut, energetic, and fun-loving flair to his superheroic work that is irresistible.

In 1941, Jack Burnley designed the scintillating superhero, Starman, for Adventure Comics #61. For a detailed, first-hand account of the Astral Avenger's origin, read Burnley's foreword for The Golden Age Starman Archives, Volume 1.

It's worth mentioning that Jack Burnley was not the only artist in his family to work in the comic book field. His brother Ray was a noted inker and his sister, Betty Bentley, lettered many of Jack's features.

Burnley led an extraordinary life outside of his accomplishments at the drawing board. He cavorted with a colorful newspaper crowd during a Damon Runyonesque era in New York City and married Dolores Ferris, a celebrated cabaret dancer. Burnley published an entertaining excerpt from his biography of Dolores in Alter Ego #27 (August, 2003).

In 1947 Burnley left the comic book field to return to sports cartooning for the newspapers. His work appeared in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph and the San Francisco Examiner. He was a boxing aficionado and illustrated a terrific paperback on the subject.

Burnley remained active in the field of comic books through fanzines and contributed drawings, letters, and articles to such publications as Robin Snyder's The Comics, Alter Ego, and others.

Jack Burnley leaves comic book fans a shining legacy of brilliant art. Truly, he was one of the top rank of artists who made the Golden Age golden.

We Will Not Forget... A Tribute to Alex Toth (1928-2006)

by Don Mangus, Comic and Illustration Art Specialist

The comic book and animation industries lost one of their brightest talents Saturday, May 27, when Alex Toth passed away. Mr. Toth leaves behind a stellar legacy that will continue to entertain readers and viewers, and inspire and inform generations of comic book artists, animators, designers, illustrators, and writers.

Alex Toth launched his comic book career in 1943 while still attending Manhattan's High School of Industrial Arts. The ambitious high school student was soon tutored on the job by another brilliant comic book cartoonist, Sheldon Mayer. Mr. Toth found early direction and inspiration from the savvy, uncompromising approaches of comic strip artists Noel Sickles, Milton Caniff, and Frank Robbins; comic book artists Jerry Robinson and Mort Meskin; and illustrators Harold Von Schmidt, Albert Dorne, and Robert Fawcett.

Alex Toth once remarked that he approached his pen-and-ink characters as "silent actors and actresses who speak lines, express, emote, feel, react, and give life to dialogue, scenes, and plots." His preternatural drawing ability allowed him to do just that.

By the 1950s, Mr. Toth's elegant design and film-like storytelling had revolutionized and revamped the romance, crime, Western, and mystery comic book genres. His bold art style became the template for the "house style" at Standard Comics.

In the late fifties, Alex Toth traveled west to California and broke into the animation business. His "model sheets" and character designs for Hanna-Barbera Productions set a new standard for animated television action-adventure shows. Among the many fondly remembered programs he contributed to were Jonny Quest, The Fantastic Four, The Herculoids, and Space Ghost.

A tireless innovator and seldom-satisfied perfectionist, Mr. Toth enthusiastically continued to break new ground in storytelling techniques throughout the sixties and seventies with his ever-evolving comic book work for Dell, Warren Publishing, and DC. The eighties found him at the peak of his powers.

By 1983, Mr. Toth's career in comics was winding down. For the most part, he was finished with long continuities. By then, he had started a final, far more personal phase of his career -- that of unparalleled educator, perceptive commentator, and hard-spoken critic of the fields that he loved so dearly. His running correspondences with a host of fans and his articles for such pro-zines as Robin Snyder's The Comics and Roy Thomas' Alter Ego, titled Before I Forget... will be studied and re-read for years to come. Also not to be missed are the three fine career retrospectives published by Mr. Manuel Auad. Mr. Toth was elected to the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990 and to the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 1991.

I started a correspondence with Mr. Toth in the seventies, and count some of his other devoted fans as my closest friends. Like them, I mourn this loss, and will not soon forget Mr. Alex Toth or his wonderful works. Godspeed Alex.

From the HA Archives: Heritage Profile: Don Mangus

 We have some very interesting and talented employees here at Heritage, and we'd like to take this opportunity to present a profile of one of our top catalogers, Don Mangus.

Don's father is an authority on arctic geology, and explored the Brooks Range starting in the 1940s. As a result Don grew up in Anchorage Alaska. In addition to being a geologist, Don's father is an accomplished landscape painter and Don grew up around art. As a boy, Don bought all his comics in drugstores such as Rexalls or Woolworths, as no back issue dealers or used bookstores were available at the time.

In 1964, when Don was 9 years old, Alaska suffered one of the worst earthquakes in history, it was the largest earthquake ever measured on the richter scale, and the quake lasted for well over a minute. Much of the state was destroyed and had to be rebuilt from scratch. Fortunately, Don's home was undamaged and the entire family escaped loss or injury. Thanks to his father's geological knowledge, the Mangus home was situated on stable gravel, while many other buildings and houses in the area had been built on clay soil, which liquified during the earthquake, causing unexpected destruction.

When Don began collecting comics, most of his back issue purchases were made through the mail. He mainly bought from noted dealer Robert Bell, and it took Don nearly 10 years of searching to find a copy of Avengers #1, as there were no conventions or comic shops in Alaska. Finally, in 1974 Don talked his mother into traveling to New York City to attend Phil Seuling's Comic Art Convention where he met artists such as Mike Kaluta and Jeff Jones. Don says "it was everything I could have dreamed of."

Things changed when Don moved to Texas in 1974, and he quickly networked into Texas comic fandom. Within two years he had acquired most of the key Marvel comics he had been seeking since his childhood. After acquiring the Marvel comics he needed, Don began to focus on esoteric comics of the 1950s, which still interest him to this day. Around 1993 Don began collecting original art, and that has remained his primary interest to this day.

In the 1990s some Dallas area fans started a cable-access TV show that focused on comic collecting and Don appeared on it several times, both as a guest and as a host. Topics of discussion included comics of the 1950s, Alex Toth, and Winsor McCay. It was a great experience that helped Don network with even more comic fans in Texas.

Also in the 1990s, Don was fortunate enough to meet TV, radio and comic artist Pat Boyette, who became a very dear friend. Don has also made friends with many fan historians and artists, and for Don that is one of the most enjoyable aspect of the hobby. Veteran artists who Don has become friendly with include talents such as Sam Glanzman, Ric Estrada, and other artists of that generation.

One of Don's best stories is the tale of how he bought a complete, unrestored, copy of the legendary Suspense Comics #3 at a small used book store in Texas for just for $3! The dramatic Alex Schomburg cover art is unforgettable, and Don instantly recognized this very rare comic. Don then took the comic to the San Diego ComicCon in 1996 and when he told several dealers about the comic, they quickly began following him around the convention. After consulting with his friend Chris Budel of The Nostalgia Zone, Don quickly sold the comic to an eager dealer for a good price - and with this windfall in hand, he quickly moved through the convention hall buying original art at a frenzied pace!

Don is still an avid collector, focusing primarily on original art; usually complete stories from various genres including war, Westerns, mystery, romance, and humor. He focuses on the years 1950 to 1975. Don's plans for the future include continuing his researching of comics history and helping to establish credits for Golden Age art, information which is perilously close to slipping into oblivion.

Blast from the past: Heritage Expands its Comics Expert Staff (2004)

Dave Tosh, Don Mangus and Barry Sandoval join HCA.

"We're very pleased to announce that we've expanded our comics and comic art writing and research staff," said Jim Steele, Heritage Comics Auctions' chief comics cataloger. "Our auctions have proved so successful over the past few years that we're increasing the frequency of our Signature sales to six a year, necessitating the staff expansion. We've been very fortunate in recruiting three extremely talented gentlemen, each of whom brings an impressive breadth and depth of knowledge to the table." All three will report directly to Steele.

David Tosh has been keeping his nose stuck in a comic book for about as long as he has been able to read - maybe even longer. A native Texan with roots in Arkansas, Dave was a regular fixture at the old Dallas Fantasy Fairs of the 1980s and 1990s, where he conducted a series of "Minicomics Workshops," popular events where convention guests and attendees created and published an eight-page mini from scratch, distributing it at the show. His small press publishing career began in 1984, with the publication of a "jam" strip involving a few major Underground artists: Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Denis Kitchen, and Spain Rodriguez (one of his jam pieces is being offered in HCA's upcoming April Signature Sale, being held April 2-3, 2004 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City View here). Since then he has published over one hundred minis, with titles like Hey!, You Bet!, and Mumbo. David and his wife Sonia currently live out in the country about twenty-five miles from Dallas with their dogs, cats, and daughter, Alexandra.

Don Mangus spent his formative grade, middle, and high school years in Anchorage, Alaska, where the long, frigid, winter nights made an indoor hobby a necessity. Don quickly grew to love reading and drawing comic books and strips, and dreamed of one day becoming a professional comic strip artist in the tradition of Roy Crane or Milton Caniff. In 1974, Don moved to Dallas, Texas, to attend Southern Methodist University's Fine Arts program. There, he earned first a BFA, and then a MFA degree, in painting. From 1981-1996, Don taught Design, as an adjunct professor, at Eastfield College, in Mesquite, Texas. Don attended his first comic convention at the Phil Sueling NYC show, in 1974, and became active in Texas comics fandom in the mid-1980s. In 1993, Don became passionate about collecting original comic book art, and has since joined several apas (amateur press associations), such as CFA-apa (Comic and Fantasy Art), apa-I (indexing apa), and kapa-alpha (the first comics apa), and has since written numerous articles for several fan publications. His interests in art collecting are action-adventure, non-super-hero, comic book art, circa 1950-1975, especially EC and DC war art.

Barry Sandoval is an experienced writer and editor who comes to Heritage from the world of book publishing, where his experience included editing an encyclopedia of photographers, a digital photography series, and a German-English dictionary. Barry is familiar with the Dallas area, having graduated from Southern Methodist University in the Class of 1991 with a B.A. in Journalism. He returns to "Big D" after several years in Europe, where he worked for Germany's Droemer Knaur publishing group. Barry is an avid collector not only of comics but also of books, 1970s and 1980s video games, other pop culture memorabilia, and anything football-related.

In Memoriam: Don Ivan Punchatz

 
By Don Mangus, Heritage Auctions

The passing of Don Ivan Punchatz (1936-2009) is a hard blow, the loss of a fine friend. Beyond his unparalleled talent for science fiction and surreal fantasy illustration, Don will be lovingly remembered as an insightful, enlightened, and compassionate creative talent who mentored and inspired generations of younger artists. Don Punchatz absolutely obliterated the sardonic wise-crack of "Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach."

Don grew up in Hillside, New Jersey, and after he graduated from high school he won a scholarship to the famous Cartoonists and Illustrators School in NYC. There, comic strip legend Burne Hogarth took the youthful artist under his wing. When I last saw Don, he reminisced over lunch how much Hogarth's staunch support and enthusiasm had meant to him. Such warm sentiments, still felt fifty-plus years later, must have shaped Don's own nurturing attitude towards his many students and assistants.

Check the world-wide web or any first-rate reference book on science fiction illustration, and you will quickly recognize the hyper-realistic, magical pieces that Don created. You might even experience a "eureka moment" as you recall the impact they've made in popular culture. In his autobiography on askart.com, Don modestly summarized his career, "At first, Punchatz was known primarily as a paperback artist, producing science fiction, fantasy, and horror covers for Ace, Berkley, Dell, Avon, Macmillan, New American Library, and Warner Books among others. However, as his work became better known, he soon began receiving commissions from many national magazines including Playboy, Penthouse, Esquire, National Lampoon, Time, Omni, Rolling Stone, and Boys' Life. Many of these commissions were directly related to science fiction and fantasy subject matter." Among his most celebrated works are his cover paintings for Issac Asimov's famous Foundation trilogy from Avon Books, the cover illustration for Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions anthology, and the packaging art for the best-selling video game, Doom.

Don's autobiography continued, "In 1970, he founded SketchPad Studio where a number of young illustrators began their careers. Later, many of them went on to establish their own national reputations. It was also in 1970 that Punchatz began teaching illustration at Texas Christian University and continued to do so for 35 years. He was also a guest instructor for Syracuse University's Independent Masters Program since the mid-eighties."

While Don was a frequent guest at our local Dallas comic conventions, I actually met him at the home of comic book artist Pat Boyette in the early nineties. Before he turned to a career in filmmaking and comics, Boyette had been a San Antonio based TV/Radio broadcaster. Always intensely interested in Boyette's variegated careers, I was delighted to learn that when Don had been stationed in San Antonio during an army stint in the late fifties, he had watched Boyette's newscasts and was a fan. Thirty years later, when he was first introduced to Boyette, Don had remembered him from those newscasts. It's a small, wonderful world.

As visual artists, Punchatz and Boyette had an immense mutual respect for each other. To me, these two kindred creative souls were "cut of the same cloth," and it was a pleasure to watch them interact.

During Pat Boyette's slow, sad decline in health, his friends and family were touched by Don Punchatz's bottomless emotional support for our mutual friend. However it wasn't just Boyette who was the beneficiary of such deeply felt compassion. Don felt that way about all of his friends, whether new or old. He was one of the kindest men I've ever met.

After all is said and done, along with his life's work of awe-inspiring artworks, those who were fortunate enough to know him will never forget the unsinkable spirit and remarkable generosity of Don Ivan Punchatz.

Don Ivan Punchatz and The Sketch Pad Studio Story

 
By Don Mangus, Heritage Auctions Comics and Illustration Art Specialist

Heritage Auctions is pleased to offer an eye-popping selection of vibrant visions pulled from deep within the flat files of a seasoned vet of Don Ivan Punchatz's Sketch Pad Studio. Keep a sharp eye open for these visual delights in our upcoming SICA sales.

Ray Bradbury once wrote, "Don Ivan Punchatz — Don Ivan's ability to touch men with acrylic and melt them into beasts, or touch beasts with oil and ink, and voila, they are senators or brokers is endlessly stunning. Metaphor, after all, is the universal language and Don Ivan Punchatz could teach at Berlitz." Harlan Ellison simply describes Don Ivan as "One of the truly great modern artists."

To briefly outline the origins of Sketch Pad Studio, a seed was planted, when New Jersey high school graduate Don Ivan Punchatz (1936-2009) won a full scholarship to Burne Hogarth's legendary Cartoonist & Illustrator School, bestowed on him by the world-famous cartoonist himself. Inspired by the tutelage there, with Hogarth acting as his mentor, Don Ivan "payed his experiences forward" by sharing his own working life with generations of cartoonists and illustrators.

In the fifties, after C & I, Don Ivan found himself in the Army, stationed in San Antonio, Texas. It was in the Alamo City that Don first caught Pat Boyette on TV, as a local newscaster. Through Vanguard Productions publisher J. David Spurlock, Don Ivan met Boyette in the 1990s, as did I. Pat hosted wonderful coffee klatches for us at his Ft. Worth apartment, and we enjoyed our artistic fellowship.
At the time, in addition to being a working, hall-of-fame illustrator, Don Ivan was also teaching illustration at TCU in Ft. Worth. Even after decades of accolades in his chosen field, and an outstanding teaching career of nearly 40 years, the administration had begun carping to Don Ivan about his lack of an "advanced degree." I hold an "advanced" MFA degree myself and have taught college level art, and believe me when I point out that this was academia at its most disingenuous — any aspiring illustrator would leap at a chance to study with Don Ivan Punchatz.

Many did, and not just at a school. It turns out, that in addition to his college teaching, Don Ivan also had established apprenticeship-styled/work-for-hire jobs for the young turks, especially those with the "eye of the tiger," at a place he named Sketch Pad Studio. The roster included Gary Panter, Chad Draper, José Cruz, Mike Presley, and Roger Stine among many, many others. These talented tyros toiled under Don's watchful eyes, more often than not collaborating on the cutting-edge images that saw print in a wide variety of venues throughout the seventies, eighties, and nineties, until the 9-11 attacks led to a seemingly overnight decimation of those metaphorical twin towers of commercial art — the advertising and freelance illustration markets.

To recall those deadline-defying days of the Sketch Pad Studio (also known as the seventies and eighties to the rest of us), here's a brief, candid interview of two mainstays of the Sketch Pad Studio — illustrators Chad Draper and Jose Cruz.

Q: Chad and Jose, how did each you each come to work at the Sketch Pad Studio and how long did you each work there?

CD:  Roger Huebner, my mentor/professor in Oklahoma, sent me to Don Ivan under the auspices of "extern-ship." As in, I could become an assistant at the Sketch Pad Studio for full college credits if Don liked my meager portfolio — and he did. Mainly because he trusted Roger's judgment that I had actual talent and could not learn another thing in school; I had to get real illustration experience. Roger taught me everything he could in college (including how to pick-up unsuspecting co-eds), so now I was in the real world, from 1980-84. Don had just moved the studio into his own home. Now I was part of his great, extended family (strangest time-warp of all — I am back in that very same home/studio today, living and working with his widow, Sandra. A quite complicated, mystic scenario).
JC: After taking Don Ivan Punchatz' illustration class at TCU in Ft. Worth, Don invited me to work over the summer of 1975 at his studio, the Sketch Pad, in Arlington. It was supposed to be just for the summer but when I told him that I couldn't return to TCU for lack of funds, he let me stay on full time. I worked there for two-and-a-half years.

Q: What sorts of things would you do at Sketch Pad Studio?

CD: Every conceivable (and inconceivable) thing. From the thumbnail sketch stage to finished illustration. Frisket cutting, airbrushing, flat-painting, rendering, fixing, screwing-up, and correcting. And this usually meant "all-nighters," wherein the illo had to get to its destination at the very last moment. Deadline Hell. The mad rush to DFW airport to actually place it in person on the next flight to New York. But that wasn't all. There were domestic duties (after all, I was part of the family). Household shopping and cleaning, cats to the vet, kids to the school, runs to the ubiquitous loan officer, the doctors, the libraries, but oh, don't forget the late lunches with the art directors, or the early parties with the art buyers, or the infrequent visits from the mysterious Darwin, the holy art rep. I never really understood that dynamic — he would only show up about twice a year and it had something to do with art and commerce, the two immutable forces.

JC: At first I would cut the cardboard for the backs of the illustrations. Thank God I had all that experience at the "Box Factory" that I worked at for my old man when I was young. We (the Sketch Pad crew) went to a Paper Party, and I had too much to drink, so I told Don that I was going to quit and go back to the "Box Factory" because I already knew how to cut cardboard. The next day he had me watching Mike Presley, his number one assistant, pull washes on his (Mike's) illustrations. I was sent from one illustrator to another around the studio 'til I got the hang of what they all did in an assembly line of illustration. I got into the airbrushing thing thanks to Greg King and learned everything he knew. I then became Don's assistant, sitting next to him and working on Don's illustrations, and eventually my own.

Q: When you struck out on your own, what was the illustration game like "back in the day?"

CD: It was fairly common then to show your "book" to all of the art directors in Dallas. You hand it to their assistant, they sit it on a table, it gathers dust for a while, then they give it back to you. The actual art director is not even in the goddamn building. If you are lucky (or "cute and new" enough) you get a "spot" illustration in an actual magazine — in black and white (color is only for the established pros). After about four more months, you get a check for $150. Thank God. However, back then, I was extremely lucky to get sizable jobs from illustrators who were too busy to do it themselves. Hand-me-down ad art jobs, almost always by way of Don, himself. That saved my life over and over. Eventually though, my style caught on for editorial work, especially out of town. If I got a two-page spread or a cover for a real magazine I thought I had completely transcended this sphere. Of course, such transcendence is short-lived.

JC: I first got a representative in New York City to show my work, so I didn't really have a day that I wasn't working. In those days there was a lot of work for those who had realistic portfolios. I got into book covers and magazine editorial illustrations. I realized that I needed a distinctive style in order to set myself apart from the rest. That took five years of development on my own in-between the realistic work.

Q:  What's the field like now post 9-11? What are some of your current projects?

CD:  Somewhere in there, amidst all of the illustration junk, I began to sell screenplays. Actually, I began to sell options for screenplays. I lived off of option money for years and then an actual film got shot. (Look at False River on IMdb to see how a script is promptly eviscerated before production begins). Now, sequestered in Don's old chateau, I still write every single moment I'm not doing storyboards, executing custom-made children's books, painting personal pieces, or taking care of my best creation, Franky, my 7-year old son.

JC: I'd call it dead, but I think the field has completely changed, and is saturated with too many illustrators and clones-of-clones. After the 9-11 attack in 2001 many of the publishers streamlined their magazines and made cutbacks to accommodate the lack of advertising. Magazines got pretty thin in 2002. Many of the art directors of my time vanished from the scene and were replaced by a new breed, with their own brand of art direction and design. Many illustrators who had been working became unemployed illustrators.
The computer also became a sort of "anyone-can-do-this" tool and many illustrators like myself, who worked by hand, either had to learn the computer or do something else. I know too many illustrators who went back to school to teach.

Q: Looking back 25-30 years ago, what lessons have stayed with you from Don Ivan and Sketch Pad Studio?

CD: If I look back to 30 years ago, I see that I never should've moved out of here to begin with. Don was, and still is, the single greatest human spirit I have yet encountered. (Good God, I think he's listening right now). The best thing he ever told me, in-between all of the practical stuff about life and work, was this: "Never, no matter what it is, take anything personally." I have leaned on that saying in many hard times. Once, no long ago really, I reminded Don of his advice. He didn't remember that at all. The reason is — he dished out wisdom like that naturally, without even thinking about it. He made you look at things differently, through his own piercing eyes. Oh, also, by the way, he literally saved my life four or five times over the years, but that's a whole other story.
JC:  I am quite handy with an airbrush. I still use the acrylic paint techniques I learned at the Sketch Pad Studio to do my fine art.

Thanks to Chad Draper and Jose Cruz for their look back at Don Ivan Punchatz and Sketch Pad Studio. Contact Chad Draper at chaddraper@sbcglobal.net; and visit José Cruz at http://www.x-factor-e.com/ and his X-Factor-E Blog; he's also on Facebook.